Cloudland Canyon- Lie in Light, Lights- Lights

In celebration of all things related to illumination, I have 2 new articles posted and ready to read.

The first is Cloudland Canyon's second long player, entitled Lie in Light,a swelling mass of spaceship vibrations and sundry fuzzed-out magma.

The second is by yet another new Language of Stone band, the self-titled debut by Brooklyn's Lights, a band that takes a different approach to the same esoteric material that has become LOS's haute couture.

As a thematic sidebar to Cloudland Canyon's excellent new album, I've provided below a list of my top picks for 2008 so far. I should also point out that I've been a bit disappointed by the music so far this year. Perhaps we've hit a bit of a slow season, but rarely has anything (particularly in the pop vein- verse, chorus, verse, vocal, et. al) really shaken me. I find myself more often than not continually popping in Burial's mindblowing Untrue from late last year, which has yet to get old. I guess it's hard to live up to that. Also, I haven't gotten around to the new M83 yet, so...


The Best of 2008 So Far...

Rod Modell- Incense & Blacklight (plop)
Read my review here

Cloudland Canyon- Lie in Light (kranky)
See above

Belong- Colorloss Record (St. Ives)
A phenomonally exotic EP of "covers". Their source material is so far removed that they're barely recognizable and the songs are so obscure that only the most devout psych fans will have heard of them (FTR-I hadn't). Yet, there's an arcane beauty to the lingering dusk of the album's Gas-like distance. Like the originals, they're only heard fading from memory, as if each successive listen is your last. Cue in some allusion to William Basinski here, sure. But the difference is that Belong's faded photo album is lit by the neon of parking lots, not just twilight. Perhaps the best album so far this year.

Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, John Tchicai, Roswell Rudd, Gary Peacock, Sonny Murray- New York Eye & Ear Control (ESP-Disk)
Technically a reissue. With the names and record label attached to this one, I hardly feel like I have to explain. Recorded for a soundtrack to an avant-garde film, it's hard to imagine any editor's hand being able to keep up with the mad alchemical science going on here.


The Advisory Circle- Other Channels (ghost box)
Another fantastic new surrealistic pastiche of library music on Ghost Box with sounds ranging from concréte sound experiments to fictional child safety adverts. It works surprisingly well for such a seemingly random conceived obscurant collage.


Ricardo Villalobos- Enfants (sei es drum)
Recommened by the Wire Blog, this is strangely entrancing slice of minimalism, with Go Team style schoolyard chanting and a very simple piano riff. It's amazing how lost you can get inside of it for 17 minutes.


Orion Rigel Dommisse- What I Want From You is Sweet (language of stone)
Didn't even know when I requested this album that she's originally from New Paltz! And used to play shows Simon Thrasher, who has yet to put out that "dream" compilation I submitted a track to over two years ago, threw for her. She's even got a song about him called "Simon Sent For Me" which name checks Forcefieldsforever.
Read my Review Here



Fleet Foxes- Sun Giant EP (sub pop)
Stately and polite, a band the B&S-bashing Steven Wells would surely hate, Fleet Foxes should be applauded for merely fine songwriting and pitch-perfect production. The lead singer sounds more than a bit like Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket, but with a country-folk-pop bent that reaches beyond Neil Young. And four-part harmonies. A lot of people are gonna hate this band...

Willits and Sakamoto- Ocean Fire (12K)
Read my review here


Looking Ahead...

Estelle- "American Boy" (Atlantic)
Her album Shine drops soon and I can not get enough of this single. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean anything (I like Kylie's new singles too, but apparently the rest of the album is crap). And I'm probably one of the only people who doesn't really understand the appeal of Kayne, but he doesn't bother me here. Perfect pop bliss in 4 minutes